Liberian Girl, Royal Court

Amidst the brutality and suffering of the Civil War in Liberia, which rampaged from 1989 to 2003, we follow one young girl and discover the nature and the cost of survival. Expect an intense viewing experience; rather than passively sitting, audiences will stand and be immersed in the performance, which, we are warned, includes replica firearms.

This sensitive yet hard-hitting story has already generated quite the buzz. It is the first play written by Peckham born playwright Diana Nneka Atuona, and it earned her the prestigious Alfred Fagon Award. Then Liberian Girl was performed as part of the recent Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, to an audience including chairs Angelina Jolie and William Hague and a selection of campaigners and survivors. 

"This particular play deals with young women and how they experience civil war – I tried to be honest without depressing the audience too much.", Atuona explains. 

She  was part of the  Royal Court's Peckham Writers Group, which seeks to stage plays in alternative spaces, and after its stint at The Royal Court's intimate upstairs Jerwood theatre, Liberian Girl will transfer to Peckham hotspot The Bussey Building then on to Tottenham's Bernie Grant Arts Cafe.